Right Where It Belongs
by C-Unit
Summary: [Oneshot Song Fic] I suddenly realize that I was wrong all this time. What I’ve become, who I was these past years, wasn’t who I was supposed to be. Lizzie rights her wrongs with the one she loves.


DISCLAIMER: Lizzie McGuire and related properties aren't mine. They're Disney's. "Right Where It Belongs" is a Nine Inch Nails song.

RIGHT WHERE IT BELONGS

_See the animal in its cage that you built  
Are you sure what side you're on  
Better not look him too closely in the eye_

The music swirls all around me, synthesizers swirling and bass lines pumping. My tanned and lean body glistens with sweat and dance and grind to the beat, and my golden hair swishes around my hair, an entity on its own.

It's Kate's 18th birthday party, and she was able to finagle fake IDs for Miranda, Parker, and me – good ol' Lizzie McGuire – and get us into Highlight, the best and most amazing club in all of Hillridge.

It had been a whirlwind year – final exams, college acceptances, Ethan Craft troubles – and now that it was summer, it was time to kick back and let lose. All the shackles and chains of my new found popularity, high school, and cheerleading had melted into the music for this one night and I was ready to make the most of it. My mom would kill me come tomorrow, but the payoff was just a dot in my eye.

_Are you sure what side of the glass you are on  
See the safety of the life you have built  
Everything where it belongs_

But no matter how much I danced or flirted or tried to push my mind away from the more trivial things in life, the more important matters of my heart came roaring into my head. Although the music was loud, certain truths – things lost in the shuffle, lost in time – came back. One of those things was Gordo, and thinking about him, made me think about my friends. Like a ball of yarn, the thread that starts it all unravels to reveal more than I could ever anticipate.

I finally gained some social status in my last year of high school. Boys finally started to notice me, and the girls would copy my fashion with a certain air of flattery only reserved for teen magazines. For a while, it felt good – really, really, really good – but in my determination to feel great, feel good, feel whole, I drifted from David Gordon, the one boy who knew the real me.

_  
Feel the hollowness inside of your heart  
And it's all  
Right where it belongs_

And when I realized that, I noticed other things too. How my closer friends weren't exactly my type of person anymore. This point is driven home when I look over at Kate, dancing close by. In the swirling lights I can see her throw a pill into her mouth and smile. Kate always had a fondness for feeling good all the time – even if it was artificial.

My friends were fading fast, but I kept them close, hoping things would switch around, but they didn't. Not with Gordo. He withdrew from me, hanging with Larry Tudgeman and others Kate/Parker/Miranda would never be caught dead with. At first I blew this off as life but it kept nagging at me. Ditching Veruca wasn't this hard – I never gave it a second thought – so why was it a stupid little splinter in my mind? I could never get to sleep right away, thoughts of Gordo spinning in my head.__

What if everything around you  
Isn't quite as it seems  
What if all the world you think you know  
Is an elaborate dream

I take another look around the club. It's jam-packed full of people all jumping, dancing, spinning, and living through the beat. Even though the crowd is giving off the impression of being one, I still feel like an outsider. I don't belong and I can feel it, deep in my ever-clenching heart.

_  
And if you look at your reflection  
Is it all you wanted to be?  
What if you could look right through the cracks  
Would you find yourself  
Find yourself afraid to see?_

I squint in the swirling lights and see blue eyes staring at me from a distance. I look directly at their intense gaze and I don't feel scared, don't feel put off. I feel comfort. I've seen these eyes before, and more memories, images, and sound bites of David Gordon enter my head.

I wonder what he's doing at the club – this is definitely not his scene and he would hate every moment of it. The idea of him coming specifically to see me leaves my head as fast as it enters. _It's just a coincidence_ I tell myself. Nothing more than chance, really.

But this suddenly makes me self-conscious. He's here, and he knows that I am. Do I look okay? Is my outfit just right? What's going to happen? I look back to the spot where he stands and he starts to approach me, pushing through the sweating masses to reach me.__

What if all the world's inside of your heart  
Just creations of your own  
Your devils and your gods  
All the living and the dead

I suddenly realize that I was wrong all this time. What I've become, who I was these past years, wasn't who I was supposed to be. I didn't hate what kind of person I was in high school, didn't really hate my friends. I just wished that I could have taken a different path. One that had Gordo by my side. It was the choices I made as a person and I wasn't going to regret who I was. I just needed that positive change, a mission plan to set me in the right direction.

_And you really are alone  
You can live in this illusion  
You can choose to believe  
You keep looking but you can't find the words  
Are you hiding in the dreams?_

Gordo finally reaches me, and he smiles. I smile back. I think he understands too, that maybe I had made a small mistake, and that things can go our way. Wordlessly, he puts his hand on my arm and I shuffle closer, dancing a little more seductively. It was a little habit I picked up at school dances, and I suddenly wished Gordo had actually gone to one. It felt more pure with him though. Like it was just a natural thing to do with him, not dirty, just the way it has to be if things are going to change between us. It was my way of making the first step towards whatever it was we would become. A sweet little reminder that I wanted to whisper into his ear later on that evening.__

What if everything around you  
Isn't quite as it seems  
What if all the world you used to know  
Is an elaborate dream  
And if you look at your reflection  
Is it all you wanted to be?

We dance, without saying a word. Kate is too happy to give me the dirty glances she would no doubt give me later, and I can tell that Miranda is happy. When I look at her she grins that "I knew it" grin she always used to give. I can feel a nagging voice in the back of my head doing the same thing – quietly whispering _I told you so_ to any part of brain that would listen – and it doesn't feel bad. It feels like I'm waking from a dream, ready to put my best foot forward, and repair the thing I needed most. I was missing a piece, and I found it. It was right in front of me all the time.

_  
What if you could look right through the cracks  
Would you find yourself  
Find yourself afraid to see?_


End file.
